I would like to ask for your opinion on a Berkovich’s Variations on a Theme by Paganini No 6. The problem was rose when the pupil in our music school played 6, 7 and 8 bars of this variation with semitone trills. It became the topic of argues of among many professors, professional pianists and experts for harmony in several countries. I would like to ask for your distinguished opinion.
Please take attention of these bars (6, 7 and 8). I put on forum the original score of the Variation No 6, then I and II variation (you could see Ossia Staff and red circles supplementary added).
Do they play with tone or semitone?

Also, I would like to ask that your opinion be based on careful inspection of these three bars and their playing, not on stereotypes founded on rules of transcript connected to some period, school, etc.

I must admit having never heard of Berkovich. But, what do I know about piano repertoire.
Looking at bar 5 of the original score, I see the composer uses an accidental next to the tr symbol. My conclusion is that in that case he wants a semitone trill, and in the absence of no such an accidental, he wants a wholetone trill. Unless perhaps there is an accidental in the key signature, which is not the case here.

Desperately looking for the original score of this piece, I ran into this thread on The Classical Piano Forum. I have a photocopy of a photocopy from decades ago, made from the original my Russian teacher had. Now, one of my students is not allowed into a competition because we can't provide an original score - yet many played from photocopies in other competitions!

So, I searched everywhere, including contacting music stores and publishers in Russia, teachers of students who performed it that I found to date ... nobody has an original any more. Let's just say I looked all over the world, and the search produced nothing.

Now, JovanDi posted a message about this piece, it appears that he, or someone he knows has the original. I'll pay for FedEx or UPS delivery both ways if I could borrow the original for a week. The competition is exactly in a month, but I need to know ASAP if I can get the score from anyone. Please respond either way. Thanks!

Now, JovanDi posted a message about this piece, it appears that he, or someone he knows has the original. I'll pay for FedEx or UPS delivery both ways if I could borrow the original for a week. The competition is exactly in a month, but I need to know ASAP if I can get the score from anyone. Please respond either way. Thanks!

JovanDi hasn't been here since the day he posted that message, so this posting is not likely to help, nor will sending him a PM. You can try mailing him at

Now, JovanDi posted a message about this piece, it appears that he, or someone he knows has the original. I'll pay for FedEx or UPS delivery both ways if I could borrow the original for a week. The competition is exactly in a month, but I need to know ASAP if I can get the score from anyone. Please respond either way. Thanks!

JovanDi hasn't been here since the day he posted that message, so this posting is not likely to help, nor will sending him a PM. You can try mailing him at

Thanks! Meanwhile, someone replied to my inquiry on another forum, and a fifth volume of an anthology published in Russia in 2001 has the piece in it. So, I will be getting it soon, although I don't know if it will be on time for this student and this competition.

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